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In this tour we are celebrating the soon to be released, Pretty When She Destroys, the third book in the Pretty When She Dies Series by Rhiannon Frater. Please read on to find my review for Pretty When She Dies, book 1 in this amazing series, and also an Author Interview with none other than Rhiannon Frater! Don't forget to also enter the giveaway at the end of this post.

About The Author

Rhiannon Frater

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater@gmail.com.

Author Interview

Hi Rhiannon! I'm so excited to be interviewing you!!! Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule for answering the following.

You seem to enjoy writing in the horror genre, why?

Well, those are the stories my brain keeps giving me to write. Nearly every story I've written was born of a nightmare, and I do tend to write what I fear. So I guess it makes sense that I end up writing horror.

Well, they're horror, first and foremost. People tend to tag on other genres after it. So Pretty When She Dies ends up tagged Horror/Urban Fantasy. All my stories have an element of horror in them. Even my YA paranormal novel, The Midnight Spell, which I wrote with Kody Boye, has some elements of horror.

When I think of horror I think of Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Richard Matheson. Yet, I think some people think of horror as torture porn and guts for the sake of guts. That is a part of the genre, but I like exploring characters as they face horrific circumstances and either overcome or fall in their attempts to survive.

Some people go out of their way to classify me as anything other than a horror writer.

What are your inspiration for the Pretty When She Dies Series?

An incredibly vivid, terrifying nightmare. I dreamed the first two chapters of the first book. It was so realistic that when I woke up I was relieved to discover I was not Amaliya. It was truly emotionally shattering. Of course, I knew then I had to find out what came next.

In a time where every 2nd book is a vampire novel, how would you say Pretty When She Dies differ from the rest?

I actually asked my fans how to answer this question. They know better than I do. A lot of people stated that it felt more realistic. The real world and the supernatural elements blended well for them and didn't take them out of the story. Also, Amaliya being so unconventional in her appearance and views on life was also noted by the fans. She's not a “nice” girl and doesn't fall into the usual heroine traps of a love triangle, fulfillment through a man, etc.

In your Goodreads Bio it states that "all her works have been optioned for either TV or film" do you mean that they have all been signed for movies and TV already? How do you feel about this?

It's a good thing. I love it. When Hollywood comes knocking you know you're doing things right. Now whether or not anything gets the greenlight is a whole other story. So far everyone I have dealt with in Hollywood from development people, producers, and my film agent have been really interesting and kind. *knocks on wood* We'll see how it all shakes out.

Any sneak peek info on any upcoming projects?

I have a post-apocalyptic/zombiesque serial planned for next year. In Darkness We Must Abide, my modern gothic horror with new adult themes, has been doing quite well in serial form. I also plan to write the third Vampire Bride novel and I have a few other secret projects under wraps.

Let's say a zombie apocalypse takes place as per your As The World Dies Series, you have ONE bag you can take with you from home what items would you pack in it?

My Chihuahua, ammunition, protein bars and a bottle of water. The dog would have to sit on the top.

You are stranded on an island and you can take ONE character from ANY of your books to accompany you, who would it be and why?

Aimee, the witch from the Pretty When She Dies universe. She'd open a portal and get us out of there.

Paperback Princess Review

Pretty When She Dies by Rhiannon Frater is the first book in the Pretty When She Dies Series. I've been looking forward to starting this series since I saw the covers, and hearing through the blogosphere that Rhiannon writes one hell of a horror story. So when Giselle from XPresso Book Tours invited me to participate in the Pretty When She Destroys tour, the last and final instalment in this series I jumped to it, and I wasn't disappointed. Pretty When She Dies is all that I expected it to be and more, it reminded me somewhat of the True Blood Series by Charlaine Harris.

Pretty When She Dies starts off with a bang, there was no slow introductions here. The first page consists of Amaliya digging herself out of her shallow grave, having been buried alive. Dazed and confused Amaliya doesn't know who she is or the fact that she had recently been turned into a vampire. Pretty When She Dies is Amaliya's journey as she tries to sort out her new life being a newborn vampire.

Amaliya wasn't sweet, kind and innocent, far from, she may not even be approachable if we met her on the street with her numerous piercings and tattoos, she's bold, straight forward and sarcastic, but when I'm introduced to her family early into the novel, and the family dynamics is explained I start to sympathise with Amaliya's situation and I start to like her because I understood her a bit better. What she has suffered from her own family's hands gave me understanding as to why she was the way she was. I really liked Amaliya's accounts of being changed, to trying to figure out how to live as a vampire, she was terrific and I loved her voice, it was real, with dark humour and sarcasm.

Pretty When She Dies is a much welcome and refreshing read in this genre, this is exactly what a vampire novel should be like. I commend Rhiannon Frater for writing a horror novel that is exactly that, a horror novel! Frater's books aren't for the faint hearted, her story and her characters are out there, with explicit sexual scenes, this is not a young adult novel, I wouldn't recommend this novel for those under the age of 18.

About The Books

Pretty When She Dies

by Rhiannon Frater

Series: Pretty When She Dies #1

Published: November 24, 2008

Publisher: Createspace

Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry...

... in a new, horrific, unimaginable way...

Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature.

All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what's worse is that he's a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding. Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind.

But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation... or her death?

Buy Pretty When She Dies for only 99c for a Limited Time Only

Pretty When She Kills

by Rhiannon Frater

Series: Pretty When She Dies #2Published: September 5, 2012

Amaliya Vezorak never believed in happy endings…

When Amaliya harnessed her necromancer powers to defeat her greatest enemy, she believed she had finally found a happy ending with Cian, her lover and the master of Austin. That happiness is short-lived when the vampire ruling over San Antonio attempts a takeover of Austin in order to capture Amaliya and use her power for his own devices.

To make matters worse, Samantha, Cian’s ex-fiancée, is seeing ghosts, the untested vampire hunters of Austin are running scared as a supernatural war looms, a mysterious man is hunting Amaliya with the help of her one time lover, Pete, and Rachoń, the Summoner’s favorite progeny, appears to be out for revenge.

When Amaliya’s grandmother, a powerful medium, experiences terrible visions that reveal there is another necromancer vampire and she is crying out for help, Amaliya realizes happy endings do not come easily…

Pretty When She Destroys

by Rhiannon Frater

Series: Pretty When She Dies #3

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Amaliya Vezorak always believed she was destined to live a failed life in obscurity until she was brutally murdered by an ancient vampire named The Summoner and reborn as a powerful vampire necromancer. Now it is up to her to save the world…